


if you leave this city take me with you or don't look back

by johniaurens



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: M/M, Polyamory, Road Trips, silly boys in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 06:44:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9372782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johniaurens/pseuds/johniaurens
Summary: “The entirety of West Virginia is a liminal space,” John says, eyes glazed over.“Explain,” requests Lafayette, who has his head on John’s lap.“Doesn’t feel real, except maybe for aliens.”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cirkne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cirkne/gifts).



> lies down it's been so long since i last wrote fluff, 
> 
> this couldve been longer but oh well im lazy nd really stressed
> 
> title's from new orleans by former ghosts

“I have compiled a list of songs we should sing so we don’t get bored,” announces Lafayette three minutes after they have left the driveway. Hercules looks at him from the corner of his eye and nods. He’s got his sunglasses on. He looks nice in them and his tan shorts and white tank top. All four of them agree on this. 

“Share,” prompts John. 

“I’m always a slut for singing,” Alex comments. 

Aaron makes a face full of resentment. He doesn’t say anything. He thinks keeping silent when he disagrees with something is his greatest virtue but honestly, he isn’t fooling anyone. 

“Okay,” says Lafayette, solemn, “here’s one. The wheels on the bus go -” 

Hercules takes one of his hands off the steering wheel and smacks him on the shoulder. “Shut up.” 

Lafayette somehow manages to twist his face into a hurt expression. “Hercules, you wound me.” 

John and Alex boo from the back seat. Aaron puts his face in his hands and sighs. Alex and John curl themselves around Aaron, arms overlapping and heads knocking together. Aaron mumbles “if you don’t stop I’ll whack you both with my cane.” 

“You wouldn’t dare,” John says, delight in his voice, “you forget that I could throw you a hundred feet. I’ll slam dunk you into a trash can or something.” 

Hercules scoffs. “ _I_ could throw him a hundred feet. I think you could do fifty at most.”

John pouts. He looks like an angry puffin with his bottom lip sticking out and Alex frees one of his hands so he can pet his hair. John makes a low grumbling sound in his chest. 

“The cane is in the trunk anyway,” Alex reminds them.

“Shut up. What is it even doing there, I’m gonna need it if we stop,” says Aaron, but he leans up into the two bodies containing him, pressing him into the seat. 

There’s a sound of Lafayette clearing his throat, and then -

“- round and round, round and round, round and round -”

“Shut up, you french fuck,” Hercules says, and turns the radio on loud.

-

“The entirety of West Virginia is a liminal space,” John says, eyes glazed over. He’s staring directly out of the window, face a little slack save for the twitching of his eyelids.

“Explain,” requests Lafayette, who has his head on John’s lap. 

“Doesn’t feel real, except maybe for aliens.”

“That might just be the six shots of espresso talking, but okay,” says Alex. Hercules snorts. Lafayette kicks him in the chest. 

“It shouldn’t be a state,” Aaron agrees. “I always forget it exists.”

“You know which state shouldn’t exist,” starts Hercules, suddenly interested. 

“Depression,” says John, eyes still glazed over. 

Hercules ignores him. “Idaho.”

“Is that a real state?” asks Lafayette, eyes going a little squinty. “I don’t remember that state. Where is it?”

“No one knows,” says Aaron, solemnly, “a cryptid.” Alex punches him on the arm but he’s laughing. 

Lafayette looks at Hercules expectantly. Hercules just shrugs. “Somewhere near the west coast. I dunno. I prefer to not think about it.” 

“What do you have against Idaho,” asks Aaron, voice amused, “what did it ever do to you.” 

Hercules sits up a little straighter, chest puffing. “I am so glad you asked.” 

“Oh no,” John whispers, and gently knocks his forehead against the window.

-

“Stop going so fast,” whines Alex.

“Not my fault you have short legs,” says Aaron, and continues walking at the same pace he was walking at, a good dozen feet ahead of Alex, almost shoulder to shoulder with John.

“Our legs are the same length,” Alex points out. “Actually, I’m pretty sure yours are shorter than mine.”

“Sucks to suck,” shoots John at him, “we literally only care about Burr keeping up with us. You can suck it.”

“Et toi, Brutus,” Alex grumbles, and drags his feet. It makes a shuffling sound he knows John hates, and sure enough, he turns around to glare at Alex, and Alex sticks his tongue out at him. John sticks his out right back at him. 

“Okay,” says Hercules, “let’s break this up.” And then he walks back to Alex, lifts him up and slings him across his shoulder. Alex’s legs go limp. His feet make a dull thudding sound when they gently hit Hercules’ chest.

“I’m not complaining,” he says, muffled against Hercules’ back, “but what the fuck.”

“Hey Herc,” says Aaron, mild, “wanna see if you can really throw him a hundred feet? I see a trash can.”

Lafayette snorts. 

“Nooo,” says John, voice turning into a whine, “I change my mind, let him be.” 

“Oh, so now you’re on my side,” Alex mutters, “McFuck off, you traitor. I don’t want your help.”

“Okay,” says Hercules, totally nonchalant, and shrugs Alex into his arms like he weighs nothing. “Get ready.” 

Alex squirms like a fish. “Wait, no, I’ll take your help, John.”

John looks conflicted. Lafayette knocks his body into John’s shoulder. Aaron makes an encouraging airplane noise. 

“Okay,” says Hercules, “one, two, three…”

-

Bright lights. The music is getting a little too loud. Lafayette, Hercules, and John are out there somewhere, dancing.

Alex can almost imagine them - Hercules, radiating happiness and excitement, putting his all into the movement, the dancing. Lafayette, bouncing around him, face stretched into a giant, teeth-baring smile. John, probably leaning into Hercules, glass in his hand, trying to shit talk Hercules into putting him into a headlock, probably only getting a two-handed hair ruffle for his troubles. 

He closes his eyes. They’re in Savannah, and he doesn’t know how much they can do without getting in trouble. John is apprehensive of the South and Alex gets it. They’ve been limiting all PDA to the minimum. 

(“What if I took off my binder and shaved, I still pass as a girl sometimes,” Alex, still in just two towels after his shower, had said, only half-joking, “problem solved.”

John poked him squarely on the nose with three fingers. “You’re dumb.” 

Aaron smiled, a mild but amused smile, and patted Alex on the head. Alex leaned into it a little, and Aaron put more pressure into it, massaged his fingers against his scalp.

“You can still make out with me,” he suggested. 

Alex cracked a smile. “Offer accepted.”

John groaned. Hercules and Lafayette twin-grinned, fingers linked, and leaned down to kiss John on each cheek. Hercules put his hand on John’s cheek and then he bent down to kiss him properly. John tilted his head up to make it easier for Hercules. Lafayette pouted. 

“Unfair,” he grumbled. 

“Wait for your turn,” Alex called out. Aaron sighed against him, a little tired, but when Alex turned his face towards him again he just pulled him in again, kissed him a little hard. Knocked their teeth together and grinned when Alex winced.)

Aaron sits down next to him at the table. 

“Hey,” Alex says. 

“Hey,” Aaron says back, “you’re here all alone. What’s up?”

Alex shrugs. “Guess I’m just a little quiet tonight.” 

Aaron nods like he understands. He probably does. He’s a little quiet most nights. Alex drags himself closer to Aaron, nestles into his side. Puts his head on his shoulder and sighs. Aaron’s hand comes to rest on the back of his neck, natural, easy like water flowing. 

“Wanna stay here for a second?” he asks, and his voice is quiet, like it usually is, but there’s a warm quality to it, like it’s been put through an orange-pink filter. It feels like old leaves, just before they fall. Alex closes his eyes. He can’t hear the music anymore. He can feel the bass, though, in his heart, and he puts one hand over his own heart. Aaron puts his free hand over Alex’s.

“Yeah,” Alex says, “yeah.”

-

John drives with the radio on. Aaron claims the passenger’s seat outbound of South Carolina, curls up against the window, pulls his blanket over his head, and falls asleep immediately. They drive in relative silence for a long time, all of them bleary-eyed and exhausted. In the traffic lights Hercules suddenly nods awake from his half-slumber.

“Holy fucking shit, dude,” Hercules exclaims, delighted. “Turn it up, turn it up, John, c’mon.”

John rolls his eyes but he does turn the music up. Hercules closes his eyes, mimes wiping away a tear. Lafayette punches him in the arm. 

Alex is the first one to start singing along, soft at first, but getting louder. Lafayette joins, and then Hercules, and Aaron startles awake when John opens his mouth in a sound that can only barely be described as singing with how loud it is. 

Bleary-eyed, Aaron glances back at the three boys on the backseat, hands clasped together in a circle, singing, Lafayette with his eyes closed and an almost reverent look on his face, and Alex and Hercules with unabashed joy in their eyes. He makes a face that almost looks like a frown but his mouth is twitching. He doesn’t smile but he looks like he wants to.

Green. John makes his turn. Hercules rolls down his window and sticks his face out, still yelling along to the song.

_Hey now, you’re an all-star…_

-

“Anyone got any spare stim toys lying around,” calls John out from the backseat. Lafayette and Hercules shrug. Aaron doesn’t react. He’s in the _zone_. He’s not that good of a driver and paying attention to the nonsense happening around him can get deadly.

Alex, next to John, says, “you can have my necklace.” 

“Gross,” John grumbles, but he makes grabby hands at Alex anyway.

“You could clean it first,” Alex suggests, handing the necklace over.

“I’m _gonna_.”

There’s a few minutes where the only sound aside from the whir of the AC is the sound of John furiously cleaning the necklace with a paper towel. He seems finally content with it, lifts it up in front of one narrowed eye to inspect it closer. 

“Put it in your mouth,” Lafayette stage-whispers right into his ear from his left. 

John punches him in the shoulder. “I’ll put it in _your_ mouth.” Lafayette opens his mouth and widens his eyes, looks expectant. Alex, slowly, but with clear intent, reaches one arm over John and gently inserts four of his fingers in Lafayette’s mouth. Lafayette makes an amused sound and gently closes his mouth around the fingers.

“I feel left out,” says Hercules mournfully from the passenger’s seat. He’s looking back at them, eyes big and sad. He’s pouting. John reaches out with one hand and pats Hercules on the arm. 

“I knew I could trust you,” Hercules says, and closes his eyes. There’s a silly smile on his face, and John feels so affectionate, suddenly. All soft in the middle.

-

“I did _not_ expect it to be this hot,” Alex complains.

“It’s not,” Lafayette says, calm. “It’s just humid.”

Alex flops onto his back on the hotel bed and glares at him. John curls up around him a few inches away, close enough to be a comforting presence but far enough away that his body heat doesn’t make Alex want to die. 

“I’m gonna order takeout,” Lafayette says, ignoring him entirely. “What d’y’all want?”

“Thai,” says John dreamily. He’s tracing patterns into the ugly hotel comforter with his index finger. “I want to eat exactly six gallons of green curry. Get them to put bamboo shoots in there if they don’t already by like, default.” 

“Okay,” says Lafayette and finds a nearby Thai place on Yelp, then a pen and some paper and starts writing down his own choices. Alex wants to roll his eyes at the list because it’s getting really long and they don’t need that much food and it’s gonna cost approximately all of the money, probably, but he restrains himself. Whatever. He’s too tired to get upset over this. 

“Ohh. Do they have spring rolls?” asks John. 

“Yeah,” says Lafayette, and writes down _spring rolls_.

Hercules comes out of the bathroom wearing a white towel, Aaron trailing behind him, looks a little stiff today. It awakens some sort of a déjà vu sensation in Alex. 

“Okay,” says Lafayette. He puts his pen down. “Why wasn’t I invited?” 

Hercules sticks his tongue out. “It wasn’t like _that_.” 

“Good,” mumbles Lafayette, “because if it was I’d be offended.”

Hercules walks up to him, kisses him. Alex covers his eyes with one hand and mumbles “gross” but it’s half-hearted at best, and Hercules kisses him for that as if it’s some sort of a sneaky punishment and not exactly what he was looking for with that dig. 

“Aaron, Herc,” says Lafayette, a little impatient now that he’s not the one getting kisses, “we’re getting Thai. What do you guys want?”

“Soup,” says Aaron. “Hot and sour or something.” 

Lafayette scrolls down the menu. “Tom yum? It’s got shrimp and lime and shit.”

“Okay,” says Aaron. 

“Noodles?” requests Hercules, pulling a shirt over his head, “if they have those rice noodles with egg and veggies I want that.” 

“Okay.”

Lafayette leaves the room to call the restaurant.

“I’m gonna take my shirt off,” Alex announces. He gets no reaction from anyone so he does it, and immediately groans because it feels _good_.

“Oh no,” says John, flatly, “a topless man making sexy noises. Not safe for work content.”

Alex smacks him on the chest without looking. John hisses. “That was my fucking nipple,” he says, wounded, and Alex says “I know.” 

“Nice aim,” Hercules congratulates him, and Alex high fives him lazily. 

“I hope it falls off,” says Aaron, breezily. 

John rolls away from all of them.

-

The pool is closing, Hercules thinks. It’s getting dark, and they really should get out now so they have enough time to dry off and change into pyjamas before nine.

Well - it’s not like they’re on a schedule. They’re on a vacation. It’d just be nice to start the movie at a reasonable time so they can go to sleep early enough to not feel like death the next day. 

“We’re going to Disney,” wails Alex in the distance, perched on top of Lafayette’s shoulders. They’re spinning so fast Hercules doesn’t really want to look at them for too long in fear of getting nauseous. Or well, Lafayette is spinning - Alex is just in for the ride. John is bouncing up and down in the water a few feet to their left, his face stretched into an excited grin. He reminds Hercules of a puppy - overexcited, a little over the top. If he had a tail he’d be wagging it, Hercules thinks.

“They’re dumb,” says Aaron, approaching him. He’s mostly underwater, the water coming up to his neck. 

Hercules glances down at him from where he’s sitting on the edge of the pool and grins a little. “Yeah,” he says, warmly. 

Aaron stares at them, seemingly deep in his thoughts. Hercules leans back onto his elbows, spreads his legs a little. Aaron half swims, half walks to stand between his legs. He puts his chin on Hercules’ thigh. Hercules watches the pool lights illuminate the side of his face with pink. He looks soft. He doesn’t look like he’s in pain. Hercules likes him like this and wants to tell him that but somehow he’s scared it’s going to break the magic. 

“Dumb,” Aaron repeats absently. Near the water slides John starts screaming. Alex screams too, but he sounds more delighted. He’s got one hand in the water and his other arm wrapped tight around Lafayette’s neck, and he’s splashing water at John with the force of a small boat. 

“Yeah,” says Hercules, “but they’re ours.”

Aaron turns to look at him. He smiles, and it’s genuine. Hercules smiles back. 

“Come here,” he says softly, and Hercules wiggles himself back into the pool. Aaron is small, fits right into him, his chest at Aaron’s face level. He leans down. Aaron closes his eyes, breathes soft puffs over Hercules’ face.

“Can I kiss you?” Hercules asks. 

Aaron swallows. “That’s kind of what I was looking for here, yeah.”

And in the distance, Lafayette: “No, not my hair, John, John, John, stop, leave my hair alone -”

**Author's Note:**

> [a photo of john laurens in his natural habitat](http://easyscienceforkids.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Puffins.jpg)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> comments make my crops flourish. reading without leaving kudos kills one (1) of my children at a time until none remain.
> 
> on tumblr @ laflams and on twitter now @jchnlavrens


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